got to tackle it. The new
phases of things are too much for me, with a brain solidified by years."

"You might at least help us by stating the problem," said Norris.

"You see, it's like this. Until a few years ago every census map of the
United States was seamed by a long line marked 'frontier.' That line is
gone. That's the situation in a nutshell. Our work, the subjugation of
the land, is about done, and the question is now up to you; what are you
going to do with it? You know the old story of the man who said he had a
horse who could run a mile in two-forty. And the other fellow asked,
'What are you going to do when you get there?' We've done the running
and our children are there. Now what? You must develop a whole set of
new talents--not trotting talents, but staying talents."

"I suppose," said Norris slowly, for Dick was silent, "circumstances
bring out abilities. That's the law that operated in the case of the
older generation, and we'll have to trust to it in ours."

"That's true. But I sometimes wonder if, after all, we are helping you
to the best preparation. We send you back to get the old education. The
tendency of old communities is to rehash the traditions until they
become authority. New communities have to face problems for themselves
and solve them by new ways. The first kind of training makes scholars.
The second brings out genius. The old makes men think over the thoughts
of others. Heaven knows we need men who will think for themselves!"

"Well, 'old and young are fellows'," said Dick. "To-day grows out of
yesterday."

"Yes, if it grows. The growing is the point. It mustn't molder on
yesterday. You must have enough books to get your thinkers going, but
not more. You must not feast on libraries until you get intellectual
gout and have to tickle your palate with dainties. A good deal of stuff
that's written nowadays seems to me like literary cocktails,--something
to stir a jaded appetite. That's my friend Early's specialty--to serve
literary cocktails. But the appetite you bolster up isn't the equivalent
of a good healthy hunger after a day out-of-doors."

"When nature wants a genius, I suppose she has to use fresh seed," said
Dick.

"And genius is creative," Mr. Elton went on. "So far, the genius this
country has developed is that which takes the raw material of forest and
river and creates civilization. And let me tell you that's a very
different job from heaping up population."

Silence